


Rebuilding

by Cicuta_virosa



Category: DCU (Comics), Green Lantern (Comics)
Genre: Angst, Character Death, F/F, F/M, Grief/Mourning, Male-Female Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-16
Updated: 2019-03-03
Packaged: 2019-10-29 15:24:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17810558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cicuta_virosa/pseuds/Cicuta_virosa
Summary: There can be only one reason for Carol Ferris to wake up Jillian Pearlman in the middle of the night.  Jillian understands before even opening her door.





	1. Chapter 1

Jillian "Cowgirl" Pearlman was in bed and sleeping profoundly when somebody started to drum against her door, pulling her out of a dream of flying. Swearing, she searched for light, for pants, for her bearing. Three in the morning, who the fuck… If it was again the old lady of 3B, she was throwing her to social services for senility.

She looked through the spy-hole before opening the door because launching herself into the sky with prototypes planes made her a pilot, not an idiot.

And then she _knew_ , the second she saw and recognized the woman on the other side of her door. Jilllian opened the door. Half of Carol Ferris’s face was black and blue, her left arm was strapped on, and she had cried. Carol Ferris who had left Earth one month ago, with Hal, because there had been another crisis, because all rings, all emotional spectrum was needed on deck and she made quite the Star Saphire.

They stayed a long eternity like that, watching each other, Jillian gripping the doorframe. Speaking would have make it real. Carol couldn’t give the news, not yet, and Jillian couldn’t ask for the confirmation of what she already knew.

***********************************

They organized a ceremony in the city that Hal had loved so much. The casket was empty, the body had been vaporized during battle, only his ring flying off from that engagement, to a new wielder. John Stewart had told them he would take that being under his wing, make sure that new Lantern knew what honour it was, whose ring they wielded.

Jillian had seated herself next to Carol. She couldn’t, not now, handle Jim Jordan’s tears, and she knew nothing about Jewish funeral, she refused to make some sort of blasphemous action. The ceremony was small, only family, Air Force and Ferris personal. There were a few suspicious characters, in the back, who were probably League members who had come despite the need for discretion.

“Come one,” Ferris said after, “Let’s get drunk.”

Jillian thought the other Lanterns would have come, but they needed to go back immediately, apparently it was already a favour for the three of them to have the time to come.

Fucking Green Lantern Corps. They asked more than your life, they asked for your soul.

That night, two women who had loved Hal Jordan got drunk together, totally plastered, stopping just shy of alcohol poisoning.

Jillian would have thought it was the last time they saw each other, but a few days after, Ferris called, just to check in. It was probably masochism on her part, but Jillian took the call. And the next one too. And called Carol herself when the nights were too long. In the dead of the night, Hal’s Light seemed particularly hard to forget.

Jillian could never exactly remember what the tipping point had been, from grief shared, to friendship, then to more. They waited, they waited so long. Like it was some sort of spell. Like, if they didn’t take the last step, Hal would come back, like he had once.

He didn’t.

The morning of their first night together, Carol Ferris and Jillian "Cowgirl" Pearlman went to put flowers on an empty grave. They left hand in hand, putting a beloved ghost behind them, ready to start a new life.

 


	2. Chapter 2

There was a bonfire on the beach, people laughing and drinking and singing, and nobody more that the two women who had organized the party. Today, Jillian and Carol were celebrating with their friends and family their third year wedding anniversary.

Nobody saw the two silhouettes, higher on the beach, at the limit with the sidewalk.

“They would be happy to know you’re alive,” Jessica murmured softly and Hal didn’t even grimace for the tone she had, like he could break for a harsh word. All Lanterns spook to him like that those days, since he had been rescued from the Manhunters world by Jessica, Simon and Kyle. They weren’t even searching for him, they thought him dead, like everybody since his ring had gone back to Oa. How could they have known, about the trap within the battle, about Hal’s body being revived, about the torture….The Guardians were still searching the mean that had been used to stop Hal’s ring to come back to his finger the moment his heart has started beating again.

The moment his broken body, nested in the comfiest construct Kyle could make, had arrived on Oa’s orbit, his ring, who had refused for years to choose another wielder, had flown to him and Hal had felt like he could take his first breath in years. It had been that moment he had knew he was free, not the moment Kyle, crying, had taken him down from the torture rack.

It had been four Earth months ago, the time needed for the Guardians to heal his broken body. For his mind, he knew it would be more complicated.

He didn’t directly answer Jessica.

He stayed there, watching the party, then he said:

“It wasn’t exactly healthy, you know. What Carol and I had. We broke up, what, ten times? Every time she tried with another person, I come back from space. Every time I tried it with someone other, I compared them to some idealized image of her. And she mourned me twice already. Why good admitting I am alive would do? One day, being a Lantern will kill me and she will mourn me a third time.” He fell silent again. He could feel Jessica’s presence next to him, calm, when she would have fidgeted five years ago. She had grown so much as a Lantern and as person during his ….during his absence. He had slept on her couch that night, because he was officially dead, no apartment, and no accounts to pay for a hotel room. He had woken up yelling in terror at four in the morning and Jessica had come out of her room and made coffee. Together, they watched the sun slowly climbing in the sky, sitting together, and she hadn’t ask questions, just offered her presence.

Then, she had gone out and brought back clothes for him and enough bacon to give them coronaries. It was the first time he had felt embarrassment since he came back, to now the younger Lantern had had to brought him underwear, but he had no more money for that that for the hotel room. John had told him his brother had sold his meagre possessions and given the money to charities.

His brother.

Jim.

He wasn’t sure he wanted to tell him.

Jim too had already mourned him, and his friends too. The other human Lanterns had told him who was dead, who was still alive, but he had refused to learn more than that.

Perhaps one day.

But right now, Hal Jordan was firmly decided to let them have their peace.

“I think I want to go back to Oa,” he admitted, so low he wasn’t sure she had understood his words, but she put a light hand on his shoulder and this quiet show of support almost broke him.

Together they took off and soon, space opened its arms to the two Lanterns.


End file.
